Pam explores local knitting groups and yarn shops, critiques patterns and shares her wisdom on techniques for improving your craft.

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I’ll admit it: I had fallen into a rut. It’s so darn easy to just keep making the sun hats I’ve been making because I know the pattern by heart, it’s relatively simple, and it doesn’t take much time. I’ve been knocking out hats all week, and the biggest challenge in making them has been choosing which cotton yarns to use.

But for several weeks now, I’ve wanted to make a Mobius Hat from the book called “50 garter stitch gifts to knit.” It looks like a turban, and I think it would make a really stylish chemo cap. The designer, Candace Eisner Strick, whom I’ve interviewed in the past, used two colors in the cap shown in the book, but you can make it in one color if you ignore the striping instructions.

My hang-up was that I did not know how to do a mobius cast-on. There are some different methods of doing this, but I’m told the one where you cast on for knitting in the round but you attach the ends so there is a twist will not work. Sometime, I’m going to try that to see if it works or not, but for this first mobius attempt, I decided to follow Cat Bordhi’s video on You-Tube. After knitting half a sun hat last night after work, I finally prodded myself into watching the video again and actually casting on.

So far, the moebius cast-on seems to have worked fine. My only complaint is that it looks too big, but I tentatively tried it on, and I think it will be fine. As you can see, I’m only using one color. I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. But if this pink one comes out, I may get more adventurous on the next one.

What new technique have you been wanting to learn? What’s holding you back? In the words of Nicky Epstein, “Get over it.”

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About the author

Pam MacKenzie
Our real estate editor, Pam MacKenzie, expresses her creative side in this blog about knitting. Pam learned to knit at age 6, when her friend’s mother made Pam’s doll a dress, and Pam wanted to make more. Her mother wanted her to learn how to sew in high school, but she was afraid of the sewing machines, cutting fabric the wrong way, and the potential that sewing would have for bringing down her grade-point average. Every year, she managed to find a course conflict to avoid sewing classes. But the day after high school graduation, she took her graduation money to a fabric store, bought a kit to make a sweater, taught herself to read patterns and never looked back. These days, she knits a prayer shawl every month, along with sweaters, tote bags, gift bags and other goodies. She also designs many of her projects. Read More About PamE-mail Pam